Tadhg Furlong says he's hopeful of being passed fit for the start of the Guinness Six Nations next month.
The tighthead has not played since early December when he picked up a hamstring injury in Leinster's 38-29 win against Ulster at the RDS, with his recovery stalled by a calf issue which has prevented him from a comeback in recent weeks.
Furlong will sit out tomorrow's final Champions Cup pool game with Racing 92 at the Aviva Stadium (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), but is hopeful of being fit for the Six Nations opener against Wales in Cardiff on 4 February.
"I hope so," he said, when asked if he'll be back in the next fortnight.
"That's the plan, or back available for selection anyway. We have to see how we go. You have to hit certain markers and stuff like that along the way.
"I pulled my hamstring against Ulster, then I got back, and usually they integrate you into units and stuff the week before you go back fully training.
"So, I did all that and then I was fit the Ospreys week, scrum session, one of them ones, scrum collapsed, leg got caught weird and - ping - goes the calf. It's one of them ones, but it's unrelated [to his hamstring injury].
"Sometimes you re-injure something and that's a real pain, but it's just one of them things, it's part of the job."
It's been a stop-start season so far for Furlong, who has played just over 70 minutes of rugby for the province, and featured just five times across the campaign in total, three for Ireland and two for Leinster.
An ankle injury saw him play just once in the opening block of games, and while he returned to start all three games for Ireland in the Autumn Nations Series, he's only been able to make one appearance in the last two months.
And while he admits to some frustration around how his season has panned out, he says the fact his injuries haven't been related is a relief.
"If they are related, you're like 'What's going on? We are missing something here'. But when they are unrelated, it's easier because it's just one of those things. The way I was told, it's similar to getting injured poaching a ball. It just happens, nothing you can do about it.
"We put a good big bank of work in coming back from the hamstring, to try and be nice and bulletproof in terms of a lot of that stuff.
"Is it frustrating? Yeah, it is frustrating when it happens, but there is nothing you can do about it. You just have to keep going."
Furlong may be short of game time, but history has shown he doesn't need long to get up to speed.
Between the Covid-19 stoppage and successive calf and back injuries, he went 11 months without a game of rugby from February 2020 until January 2021.
After a run-out off the bench against the Scarlets, he went on to play all five games for Ireland, with his form earning him a second British and Irish Lions call-up.
"It's a hard one, I think you have to trust yourself a lot. And being experienced, I would have done it coming back in the 2021 Six Nations, when I came off a long lay-off with Covid and that, enforced.
"I got back in and you hit your groove pretty quick. A lot of it is just trying to stay engaged in the game and follow the habits because that's moving on quick the whole time, and you just have to stay with it if you want to feel like you are on top of the ground playing the game, not watching it when you get back."
And while he says he's "itching" to get back playing in the Six Nations, he says there's been very little international talk this week, as his Leinster teammates prepare to face Racing 92 tomorrow.
"I am [itching to get back], because I have no game this weekend. I'm looking forward to watching the Leinster lads obviously but I suppose it's different.
"You can't be too ecstatic in training or talking about it too much because there are a lot of hurt people as well. It's a tricky dynamic, so it kinda goes untold in some ways. Or it does in Leinster anyway.
"It might be a quiet clap on the back to someone like Ross Byrne who is after getting in, but it's not openly talked about because there are people disappointed."
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